The recession has encouraged us to return to shopping habits of our forefathers, but with a smartphone in one hand and a tablet in the other, according to new research from Bord Bia.

The Tomorrow’s Shopper report on the evolution of shopping in Ireland and the UK has found that we are doing more pre-planning before we shop, spreading our custom throughout the neighbourhood and opting for smaller-sized shops rather than hypermarkets.

While our parents went to the butcher, the baker and the greengrocer, we are flitting between the German discounter, the UK multinational and the local supermarket for the best deals, according to Paula Donoghue, Bord Bia’s insight and brand manager. “So no longer are we doing one big shop in Dunnes Stores or Tescos. We’re shopping in Tesco and Aldi, or SuperValu and Lidl, and Dunnes as well,” she said. “People are getting better value and looking for the deals, like the three for two offers.”

She also said the top four UK retailers – Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda and Morrisons – were shifting from hypermarkets to smaller, more convenient shops and this was expected to be replicated here because people wanted to do their grocery shopping on their way to and from work. The report found the number of small formats had grown by more than 10 per cent in the last two years “and is expected to grow by almost 12 per cent in the next two years”.